Laminate building panels have increasingly become more popular as an alternative to conventional building materials. In fact, laminate building panels for use as floor panels, ceiling panels, and wall panels are displacing conventional building materials such as wood, carpet, tile and similar materials in homes, offices and other commercial environments.
When such laminate panels are used as floors, they “float” above a subfloor, i.e., they are not anchored or affixed to the subfloor. This floating permits the laminate panels to expand and contract due to temperature fluctuations. When installing such panels as a floor, it is conventional to leave a small gap between the edge of the floor and the adjacent walls to permit such expansion.
However, the presence of a gap is unsightly and permits dirt, dust, and other debris to lodge in the gap, detracting from the finished look of a newly installed floor.
Accordingly, it has been the practice to use a molding to cover the gap between a floor and an adjacent wall.
However, because there is a wide variety in the colors and/or patterns of laminate panels, providing a molding to match or contrast with such panels requires a large number of moldings having matching or contrasting texture, design, color and/or patterns which requires a supplier of such moldings to maintain a large inventory of moldings.